


Adventures in Dry-Heaving

by thislifeinanutshell



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Alcohol, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-05
Updated: 2015-09-05
Packaged: 2018-04-19 05:00:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4733621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thislifeinanutshell/pseuds/thislifeinanutshell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>College AU: Rhett is forced to stay at home while everybody else is celebrating the end of term. To make matters worse, he has to take care of a drunken Link, who once again overestimated his own abilities.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Adventures in Dry-Heaving

Rhett McLaughlin hated studying. Alright, hate might have been a tad too strong, but honestly, he thought it was rather unfair that he was forced to hunch over his textbooks while most other students were out partying.

It had been his own fault, he had been way too excited about heading to Europe for the summer and had failed one exam. Big deal. Though precisely one semester later, he was forced to retake it and this time he really needed to pass. Calculus wasn't exactly his favorite subject. Sure, it was all incredibly logical, a fact his friend Link used to emphasize all the time, but it also meant there was no way he could just weasel his way around the right answer. If it was wrong, it was wrong, no way to interpret anything.

He sighed heavily. His room mates Link and Gregg had gone out a few hours earlier, not even bothering to cheer him up about having to mope around all by himself while everybody else would be celebrating the end of the term.

“I heard they've got a new Jacuzzi at the frat house”, Gregg had exclaimed excitedly and Link had answered only with an exaggerated shout. It was ridiculous, Link wasn't even that big of a party animal. It had mostly been him who had refused to leave the dorm, had probably slept with the textbooks under his pillow and not surprisingly, had passed all his exams with flying colors.

 

Rhett had been sitting at his desk for at least five hours and the words and numbers under his eyes started to flicker, dancing across the page as if trying to haunt him. It was way passed midnight and all in all he just wanted to go to sleep, knowing all the studying would be useless if he simply ended up missing his exam due to oversleeping. He sighed heavily, pinching the brim of his nose with his thumb and index finger, trying to cram as much information as possible into his long term memory. It was hopeless. Yes, he would probably pass, but his over achieving GPA would definitely suffer.

Just as he was about to close his book, the door of the dorm flew open, emitting a loud bang as it hit the wall. He nearly jumped out of his chair, only to be greeted by a staggering Link, obviously drunk out his mind.

“ 'Ello Rhedd...”, he slurred, as he closed the door clumsily. After looking around the room as if trying to make sure he really was in the right dorm he half walked half tumbled towards Rhett, who crossed his arms over his chest.

Rhett couldn't pinpoint exactly why he didn't like seeing his best friend drunk, especially because Link hardly drank at all. It was the end of the semester, his friend had done great and should be able to celebrate, yet the thought of him spending a shady night at some frat boys apartment without anybody to look after him gave him a wild cocktail of emotions.

“Hi”, Rhett responded simply, leaning a bit away as Link decided to examine his textbook as close as physically possible, nose nearly touching the pages. A weird mixture of every type of alcohol out there, cigarette smoke and pizza hit his nostrils.

“You stink”, Rhett stated, though he realized Link would probably not care at all.

Like expected, his friend shrugged, moved over to his own desk and flopped down onto the chair.

“How's ma best buddy doin'?”, he sang while taking on the incredibly difficult task of removing his own shoes. Rhett rolled his eyes, remembering why he preferred his friend sober.

“Fine. Was just about to go to bed. Where's Gregg?”

Link shrugged. “Dunno. Don't care. Lost 'im in the Jacuzzi.”

“How can you... Nevermind. Go to bed, Link”, he ordered, closing his textbook for good and moving towards his own bed, removing his T-Shirt and jeans. His friend only exhaled a loud groan, which Rhett decided to politely ignore.

“Can I at least turn off the lights? I have to get up at seven and I really don't want to be late.”

Link shrugged. He had managed to take of his right shoe and sock, but was stuck on the other one and Rhett watched in pity as his friend failed to untie his left shoe lace.

He turned of the big head lights and crawled under the covers, shuffling for a moment until he found a position he deemed acceptable for the night. Unlike his two room mates, he sometimes had trouble falling asleep, especially before big events. He wasn't exactly scared out of his mind about Calculus, but the idea of not passing a second time wasn't exactly pleasurable.

After five minutes of lying on his side, facing towards the wall, he could hear Link beginning to move in his seat.

“Rhedd?”

Rhett sighed silently, cursing the stupid end of the semester and every single beer on campus.

“What?”

“I... am not feelin' too good”, Link whined.

“Then go to bed.”

“But I-”

The next thing that followed was a skin crawling sound, coming deep from Link's abdomen, accompanied by a moan and a cough.

“Don't puke on the carpet”, Rhett commanded and sprinted to the light switch, only to find Link had fallen of the chair, holding his stomach, an expression of pain on his face. Rhett grabbed the nearest suitable object he could find, the trash can holding his crumpled Calculus notes, and pressed it into Link's hands who immediately held onto it like a life-saver.

After that the dry heaving sounded a lot more dramatic, Link practically threw his head into the trash can, a soft whimper escaping his lips and Rhett couldn't help but laugh. He wasn't trying to make fun of Link, but the way he moaned, obviously wallowing in his own misery, was just a little too funny.

“Buddy, you alright?”, he asked, suppressing a giggle.

Link answers with another loud heave and this time there was the sound of liquid hitting paper. It took Rhett a lot of self discipline to keep his own stomach calm. The smell of acid and alcohol was immediate and not at all appetizing. He went to open a window as Link threw up again, back arched and quivering, head still mostly stuck into the trash can.

“Do you need me to hold your hair?”, Rhett called out, joking, but Link's only responds was, of course, yet another abominable heave.

He sighed. He was exhausted from studying and just wanted to go to bed, but there was no way he could simply leave Link to puking his brains out while he would go to sleep. The flashing image of his best friend lying on his back with wide eyes, not breathing, was enough of an argument to stay up and keep an eye on him.

Link threw up again while half screaming into the trash can.

“Oh, make it stop, Rhett.”

He did sound a lot more sober, now that most of the alcohol had left his system in the most brutal way. Rhett had no idea what to do. Link was his best friend and they had been in all sorts of situations but watching him like this was nonetheless awkward. He cautiously walked over to the crouching Link and put a tentative hand on his shaking shoulder. The respond was a small, yet painful moan.

“Do you need anything?”

Link looked up at him, unruly hair glued to his forehead with sweat and pieces of puke stuck in his goatee. It wasn't very attractive.

“I'll get you a towel”, Rhett sighed, the thought of sleep doubtlessly put to the far back of his brain.

He walked to the closet, grabbed the first towel in reach and threw it at Link, who somehow managed to catch it clumsily. He buried his head into the cloth, probably smudging the liquid all over his face instead of cleaning it up.

“I... wanted... to tell you somethin'... And I think I will forget about if I don't say it right now”, Link said while letting his head fall backwards, eyes and mouth open.

“And what is that?”, Rhett asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice. He was so, so tired.

Link's response, if there had been one at all, was lost in the sound of bodily fluids ruining unwanted Calculus notes.

“Oh Goooood”, he whimpered and coughed.

“You could just tell me in the morning”, Rhett suggested, a little mesmerized by the way his friend's back ached and quivered, making him remember how this wasn't the first time he had seen Link throw up.

A day filled with heat and a soccer game against some rivaling school. Link had run like a maniac but hadn't scored. The chances of Link scoring were never incredibly high to begin with but near tropical temperature had been entirely too much to handle. After the game Rhett had waited for his friend, two big bottles of water in his hands. Link had dragged himself over, had taken a few big swigs and had managed to bring everything back to daylight in the matter of seconds. He had spend half an hour at the school nurse. Rhett had never mentioned how Link had kind of ruined his favorite pair of sneakers that day.

 

This seemed to be a whole new level though and as Link head shot down into the trashcan again, Rhett seriously considered calling an ambulance. However, doing so without Link's parents finding out would be impossible, next thing he knew his own parents would be involved and soon afterwards Reverend Hopkins would be ordering them home to give them an hour long monologue about immoderate drinking.

An ambulance was out of question, leaving Rhett to sit down on his bed, head in his hand, watching his friend repeatedly puking his brains out. He would do the same thing for me, Rhett thought, which was true, though Rhett would have never gotten himself into such a nasty situation to begin with. Sometimes his friend did weird things that nobody seemed to understand, so it was mostly Rhett's job to pretend that he did and cover up any mistakes. Sacrifices needed to made on the way, like a good night's sleep or a favorite pair of shoes, but afterwards he was always rewarded with the best friendship he could have hoped for, making it all worth the hassle.

Just as Rhett started to hear the first birds chirping outside, probably mocking him and his life choices, Link sighed quietly, looking up from the trash can.

“I think I'm done.”

“Really? Promise you're not gonna choke on your own vomit?”

Link shrugged half-heartily. “I can try. I'm too tired to move though.”

Rhett rolled his eyes, but now that his night was completely down the drain he supposed it didn't matter. He got up, moved towards Link and lifted his friend into some kind of hug. Link felt like a sack filled with stones, a very stinky sack of stones. The smell of alcohol now joined with sweat and the pungent smell of puke.

His friend hold onto him with dear life though, fingernails digging into his back and even after being carried to the bed and brought into a horizontal position, he wouldn't let go.

“You are a good friend”, Link said, voice muffled, breath hot against his shoulder. This information made Rhett stumble, causing him to half fall into Link's chest, while his knee hit the bed frame. It wasn't the most comfortable position to be in and somehow managed to make the whole night even more awkward.

“Great, if you would just let me go I could continue being a good friend in my own bed”, he murmured into Link's duvet, trying to get a hold of himself. He wasn't a big cuddler to begin with, but right in that moment he could have thought of a thousand other things he would rather be doing, sleep obviously being on top of the list.

“I still haven't told you my story”, Link pouted while his grip subsided only a little bit, but enough for Rhett to lift himself up into a standing position.

He didn't really know what to say, every cell in his body demanded sleep, so he decided to remain quiet. He flopped down onto his bed with a groan.

“Well... if you don't want to hear it...”, Link continued, voice still huffy but far away and Rhett was already drifting off into dreamland, only answering with a grunt into his pillow. He felt he had already endured enough and overall the conversation felt too unimportant to be held in that moment.

 

 When Rhett's alarm clock went off in the morning he felt like someone had hit him over the head with a hammer, but at least he wasn't Link, who was wrapped up in his blankets, puke and sweat still stuck to his face, or Gregg, who had probably returned during the early hours and had retorted to sleeping on the floor, head only inches from Link's personal barf bucket.

The room still smelt horrible and Rhett opted out of breakfast but he wrote the exam and it went alright. He managed to get 78%, which was far from perfect but considering the circumstances more than anyone could have hoped for. By the end he had forgotten all about Link's story and even though his friend sometimes still looked like he was about to say something, he never remembered to ask. Thus the story, however interesting its content could have been, remained untold forever.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo, any guesses what Link wanted to say? Feel free to interpret it any way you like, whether you imagine a sappy love confession or something entirely unromantic, you decide. :)


End file.
